At the moment, some 20 United Nations organizations with nearly 1,000 employees have their headquarters in Bonn, including the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention to Combat Climate Change (UNFCCC). According to Laschet, the state government will continue to support the development of Bonn as a UN city. This year, for example, the state will cooperate with various partners in Bonn on new initiatives: These include, for example, the "Global Media Forum" in May, which is expected to attract around 2,000 media experts as well as representatives from politics, civil society, science, business and culture from 140 nations.

In order to strengthen Bonn as an international center, Laschet said he wanted to establish a North Rhine-Westphalian Academy for International Politics in Bonn. Another topic in discussion with Guterres, who will receive the International Charlemagne Prize in Aachen this year, was the 11th "World Urban Forum" planned by the UN for 2022. The NRW state government had strongly advocated for Dortmund as an event location to the German federal government.

The NRW Prime Minister also attended a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York. For the months of March and April, France and Germany will share the chairmanship of the committee, a historically unique step. "The joint chairmanship of the United Nations Security Council by Germany and France is a great symbol of Franco-German cooperation and friendship. New York is thus sending out a strong signal for more European unity, for multilateralism," Laschet stressed.

The UN Security Council consists of 15 member states of the United Nations, including five permanent members (China, Great Britain, France, Russia and the USA) and ten non-permanent members. Germany was elected a non-permanent member of the body for the period 2019/20. It is represented there for the sixth time. Orig. text: end Translation: Carol Kloeppel